Friday, November 18, 2005

Where have you gone, Don McPherson? An orangey nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Six questions for Saturday.

1. Who are we playing? Syracuse, a pretty good hoops school.

2. What happened last time we played these guys? I can't remember...it's a little fuzzy.

3. Who's the new coach over there?Greg Robinson, former defensive coordinator at Texas and a longtime veteran of the NFL. Some say he's been dealt a lousy hand at Syracuse. Possibly. But I have to question his coaching acumen when he says stuff like this:

"[Brady Quinn] was in a good system of offense for the last two years. Tyrone's a good quarterback coach...I don't think that this is just something that happened overnight. This was a great player coming out of high school. I just think that he's grown more and more comfortable. The things that Charlie does aren't that much different from the things that Tyrone was doing, in some ways."

I'll give him a pass; maybe he isn't following Irish football as obsessively as the rest of us.

4. Any history between Charlie and this guy? You bet. Charlie's got a 3-1 lifetime record against Robinson in the pros, when Robinson was the defensive coordinator for the Broncos & Chiefs.

2002: W, Patriots 41, Chiefs 38

2000: W, Patriots 30, Broncos 24

1999: W, Jets 21, Broncos 13

1998: L, Broncos 23, Jets 10 (AFC Championship game)

5. Who's good among the Orangemen? Running back Damien Rhodes isn't too shabby. That's about it.

6. Who's gonna win? More than any other game this year, this one's in the bag. Put it this way: the only team Syracuse has beaten is 1-9 Buffalo. Even Pittsburgh killed them, 34-17.